Two-for-One: A Physics Discovery Suggests a New Way to Treat Malaria *Editor: Carlyle Webb* To most of us, crystals mean jewelry, geodes, or science kits. In reality, crystallization underlies a huge range of phenomena central to human health—from bone formation to Alzheimer’s disease (amyloid fibrils) to drug manufacturing. Peter Vekilov and colleagues at the University of Houston set out to study advanced crystallization processes in preparation for an ISS spaceflight experiment. They hoped to learn more about how crystals form and degrade. Instead, they discovered new ways to combine malaria drugs that may be far more effective—and uncovered principles with broad […]

Molecular understanding of drug interactions suggests pathway to better malaria treatments *By Jeannie Kever* Researchers from the University of Houston and the Université libre de Bruxelles published findings in *Nature* demonstrating for the first time at the molecular level what happens when two antimalarial compounds that each inhibit hematin crystal growth are combined. The results were counterintuitive. Rather than acting synergistically or additively, many drug pairs exhibited antagonistic cooperation—actually reducing each other’s effectiveness. Using atomic force microscopy and computational modeling, the team showed that when two drugs attack crystallization through different mechanisms, they can interfere with each other at the crystal […]

Hovering with SpaceX 16 A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon CRS-16 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station on Dec. 5, 2018. The SpaceX Falcon 9 was ferrying material for the inauguration of several projects and we are honored to play a role in this mission. *The two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 1:16 p.m. EST, Dec. 5, 2018. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett* Supported by the NASA program, we made the project from […]